Malaysia is one of Asia's biggest employers of foreign labour. But recently, cases of deaths, abuse and forced labour have come to light. What is going on? Who is protecting these migrant workers?
THE Employment Insurance System (EIS), which was supposed to have given workers more peace of mind, could cause them more heart break this year.
The country’s largest private sector union group fears that more workers could lose their jobs this year compared to 2017 as unscrupulous bosses use the EIS as an excuse to lay off or retrench staff.
This is compounded by the government’s recent decision to allow companies within the manufacturing sector to have 100% foreign workers in their production lines.
The majority of those laid off will be from the Bottom 40 income group, who occupy semi-skilled jobs in the manufacturing and services sector, said the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC).
Currently, the EIS does not contain measures to discourage employers from laying off workers for spurious reasons.
“We support the EIS but we wanted the EIS not to be abused,” said MTUC secretary-general J. Solomon.
“With EIS, employers can tell workers, ‘I will retrench you because now you can get money from EIS’.
“We do not want them to use EIS as an easy route to reduce their workforce,” Solomon told The Malaysian Insight.
The EIS, which came into effect this year, is a financial scheme that helps laid off workers for up to six months.
Retrenched workers receive a percentage of their last drawn salary every month until they get re-employed or until the sixth month of being unemployed.
The EIS is funded by employee and employer contributions and managed by the Social Security Organisation (Socso).
Currently, employers pay 0.2% of an employee’s salary while workers also contribute 0.2% into the scheme.
The scheme will involve 430,000 employers and 6.6 million employees.
Sources:https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/36739/
Address: Wisma MTUC,10-5, Jalan USJ 9/5T, 47620 Subang Jaya,Selangor | Tel: 03-80242953 | Fax: 03-80243225 | Email: sgmtuc@gmail.com.com